Mercedes-AMG 2013 W04

I hope they are not sacrificing this year's car too much for 2014. It will be devastating if the team is once again in no-mans land between the midfield and the front runners. The last thing I want is Lewis constantly starting next to Grosjean, Maldonado and Bianchi.

I agree about the dangers of driving well within those accident prone drivers but I'd say it helps Lewis get better too. He is the master of overtakes in F1 today, so I don't see much of a problem to see him run these guys down and have fun while at it. But yes, he is way too good to get stuck with a mediocre car. Patience will do for now, it's interesting to see him in a totally different team and with much less pressure which is absolutely vital for him. I think he doesn't do too well when he is on a tension camp where everything depends on him. At least now if he beats Vettel/Alonso to a race, some of us will call it a miracle and many haters will start appreciating this guy's actual talent. He has all the time to be on championship winning cars. I hope he gets cracking with his engineers soon!

Car gives me a similar vibe as the years before in that it doesn't look as refined to my layman eye as the cars of the top three. The nose looks straight out of Homer Simpson design department and the rear is very bulky compared to the other cars. So i will be surprised if they make a step forward this year and if so it will probably be more due to the driver pairing pushing each other.

This car does look very similar to the last couple of years Mercs so I'm not expecting much from it. I'm a McLaren fan, but I'm also a Lewis fan so it'll still be fun to see what Lewis can do in this car, regardless of where it measures up.

“It was not too bad, it just felt like driving a different car,” Hamilton told Sky Sports News.

“I am not sure what else to say, there is a lot going on, a lot of new controls I am getting used to and so much information coming in and just trying to get on top of it.”

“The steering settings that I had before are very different on this car and there are a lot more buttons as well. So utilising those and understanding the set up changes that they make – the diff settings.”

“All the calls are different – they use different terminology on top of that and the car brake bias has six settings instead of the three I used to have so there is a lot of different stuff going on.”

“I’ve driven the simulator a few times, but this was the first time I got to get a feel for it and also the tyres weren’t the right tyres.”

“It was not too bad, it just felt like driving a different car,” Hamilton told Sky Sports News.

“I am not sure what else to say, there is a lot going on, a lot of new controls I am getting used to and so much information coming in and just trying to get on top of it.”

“The steering settings that I had before are very different on this car and there are a lot more buttons as well. So utilising those and understanding the set up changes that they make – the diff settings.”

“All the calls are different – they use different terminology on top of that and the car brake bias has six settings instead of the three I used to have so there is a lot of different stuff going on.”

“I’ve driven the simulator a few times, but this was the first time I got to get a feel for it and also the tyres weren’t the right tyres.”

It must be absolutely frustrating. Feels weird, feels wrong, and you want to be the fastest driver in the world in it. If I was him I would be in a predictably bad mood right now. But it will change once he gets used to it.

and you would be thrilled to transfer from a team that is each year has almost winning car, to a team that each year goes backward as season progress?

To be honest, I sit at a desk all day everyday - I think I'd be more than thrilled to be sat in any one of those cars.

To be serious though, Hamilton had to leave Mclaren, they made too many mistakes last year and the team didn't seem to be backing him for the championship. Of course, that might look like a silly decision come melbourne when the mclaren streaks away....or it could look like the exact right move. No one knows what's going to happen, I would be extremely surprised if Merc can be right at the top this year. I wouldn't be too surprised to see them at the front next year though.

Also regarding his comments, if it is good he's not going to mention that to the media rather keep quiet and see come Melbourne, like last year where all through testing he would say how strong the RBs were looking, so don't read too much into it is my point. As long as there are no panic signs a la 2009 just sit back and enjoy it until we are given a genuine benchmark in March.

I'm undecided. Watching MS and Rosberg onboard sometimes felt like they have to adjust too many things - adjusting break balance and other things at almost every corner. On the other hand, if that were a real problem, they would/could have solved it in 3 years.

Oh dear Lewis, what have you done. The Mclaren looks like a bullet, the new Merc just looks a mess. As a fan of Lewis it's rather depressing. I hope I'm wrong I really do but I would not be surprised if Rosberg and Lewis go out in Q1.

Oh dear Lewis, what have you done. The Mclaren looks like a bullet, the new Merc just looks a mess. As a fan of Lewis it's rather depressing. I hope I'm wrong I really do but I would not be surprised if Rosberg and Lewis go out in Q1.

Do me a favour.

Alot of people are setting themselves up for an all you can eat buffet of humble pie the way they've been criticising it from a tiny sample of video and a few pics.

Oh dear Lewis, what have you done. The Mclaren looks like a bullet, the new Merc just looks a mess. As a fan of Lewis it's rather depressing. I hope I'm wrong I really do but I would not be surprised if Rosberg and Lewis go out in Q1.

So many like you around it looks like we need a fleet of wahmbulances. Are we going to have to listen to this all pre-season?

Oh dear Lewis, what have you done. The Mclaren looks like a bullet, the new Merc just looks a mess. As a fan of Lewis it's rather depressing. I hope I'm wrong I really do but I would not be surprised if Rosberg and Lewis go out in Q1.

Lewis will be fine!How can you tell the speed of a car by just looking at it?In 2011, McLaren was innovative, a war machine, etc.. did they win the championship?

Some encouraging quotes from autosport plus article. On phone having some difficulty copying and pasting them. Along the lines of he has an idea where the car is at, definitely positive not disappointed. Article implied he was smiling throughout.

Lewis will be fine!How can you tell the speed of a car by just looking at it?In 2011, McLaren was innovative, a war machine, etc.. did they win the championship?

Today was a filming day at limited speed on different rock hard tyres to teh actual 2013 spec tyres. Anybody trying the guess how quick the car is based on footage from today is As Hamilton already answered, all that could be taken from todays running was getting used to the steering wheel controls and radio comms.